The government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, which stepped down in September 2013 after the ruling Democratic Party (PD) lost the June parliamentary elections to the opposition Socialist Party (PS), used administrative mechanisms, including tax investigations and arbitrary evictions from state-owned buildings, to disrupt the operations of media outlets it perceived as hostile, according to Freedom House.
The press freedom organisation denounced that the partisan bent of many news outlets was visible during the 2013 election campaign, with the main television stations favouring either the PD or the PS in the amount or tone of their coverage. The election commission’s media rules were weakly enforced, and a decision by the panel in early June appeared to require broadcasters to air party-prepared footage during newscasts, disregarding a 2011 court ruling.
According to a 2013 report by the researcher Ilda Londo, the development of Albanian media during the last two decades can be divided in two phases: the first, from early to late 90s was marked by the so-called politically engaged media, while the second saw the emergence and expansion of clientelistic media. The pressure on the media became more sophisticated during the second period. Even if Albanian media rarely faced open threats or assaults on journalists, they rather experienced problems of an economic nature, such as financial pressure, distribution issues, non-transparent funding, ownership issues, difficult labour conditions and corruption in the media
Source: Ilda Londo (2013) Limited Assistance for Limited Impact: International Media Assistance in Albania. Sarajevo, Analitika and Albania Media Institute.